Interviews

Peter Chang, Dave Kuykendall and Terrance Yee on PlanetSide

Peter Chang: A lot of factors influence a design decision, but I would say, personally, the most important factor has been to design a world that accommodates players with different playing styles.

Terrence Yee: At this point, feedback from the beta pool (internal and external) is of great use to the team. From this, we're able to see what works, what needs to be fixed slightly, and what needs a total overhaul.

Dave Kuykendall: Fortunately, we are blessed with a very powerful engine, so we have few hard limits on what we can do. Therefore, it comes down to mainly looks and design. Most of the land areas of the maps are made with visuals in mind. It is only near the bases and other important points where we really looked hard at cover placement, hills, gullies, etc.

GameSpy: How do the world designers work with the combat systems designers to create the highest quality game experience?

Peter Chang: The lead designers are the ones that come up with the overall vision of what the game is. When Dave and I design the world, we follow their ideas and try to build a world as close to their vision as possible.

Terrence Yee: As both Peter and Dave are huge FPS fans, there really isn't that much input that Kevin or I have had to give them. They understand the genre, the game we're trying to create, and the needs that the terrain must meet. It also helps immensely that they're constantly re-examining current assets to see if any improvements can be made.

GameSpy: How does the world design on PlanetSide differ from previous games?

Peter Chang: I guess, the main difference in designing the world for this game that differs from previous games is the size. Before, I had dealt with levels that were about the same size as a single base in our current game, which is pretty typical for a single-player FPS game. However, the continents I have built for this project have, at most, 12 of those bases on it. There's also a lot of space in-between them. The continents I have to build for this game are huge.

Dave Kuykendall: Other games that utilize terrain of this size often create the terrain algorithmically. For PlanetSide, we designed it in several layers; from a macro level down. A designer created all of it. Some groundcover was placed via automated scripts. After all, we have over 15,000 objects on each map. A designer placed a significant amount of these objects by hand.

GameSpy: How do you think PlanetSide will impact the future development of massively multiplayer online games?

Dave Kuykendall: I think we will see more MMO games focusing on PvP action, where player skill, not player level, determines the outcome. Competing against AI opponents simply does not compare to fighting another player or group of players.

Peter Chang: Well, a game like this is really hard to make. This is the reason why, even though FPS games are such an overcrowded genre, a lot of developers have really yet to try to make an MMOFPS. Trying to balance gameplay for two factions is already hard enough. In our game, we have three factions, each uniquely different and balanced at the same time. There's also the huge amount of weaponry that we have in the game, from pistols to laser weapons to heavy tanks. It all needs to be balanced out.

Because of the need for persistence in a MMO world, the RPG aspect has also been incorporated into the game. The most difficult part of implementing this idea is assuring that it won't distract from the skill aspect of the gameplay. Skill is usually what defines the essence of FPS gaming. On the technical side, the programmer needs to make sure that the server can handle thousands of people while everyone playing still has a playable framerate. Everyone that plays FPS games knows that framerate is everything and lag can kill the overall experience of the game.

These are just some of the difficulties that our team has gone through in making this game. Because of these, and other difficulties, most developers think that this type of game is impossible to make. Well, the one thing that our game will do is to prove to the massively multiplayer community that it is possible to make a MMOFPS game. I think that this is where we will have the most impact on the future development of massively multiplayer online games.